CAG raps Ahmedabad metro for "wasteful spending"

The government-owned Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), which is implementing the metro project, wasted crores of rupees due to mismanagement, said a report tabled by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the Gujarat Assembly today.
As per the CAG's audit report on state public sector undertakings, MEGA spent Rs 373.62 crore on development of three sites -- Indroda and Chiloda here and Motera in Ahmedabad -- which were later abandoned because the route was changed.
Work orders related to planning, designing and material procurement were given before the Draft Project Report (DPR) got approval in December 2012. The routes suggested in this DPR were later changed and work for earlier phase-1 of the project was stopped in 2013.

"The company incurred expenditure of Rs 445.86 crore towards various works for the old phase-1, which was scrapped. Out of the above expenditure, Rs 373.62 crore was incurred towards three sites, which were to be used as depot, casting yard and test rack sites," the CAG report said.
"In the new phase-1 route, these three deports do not figure...It resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 372.62 crore," it said.
The report also said that limited number of local

suppliers were called in for award of earth-filling contracts. Rates of these contracts were in some cases 370 per cent higher than prevalent schedule of rates (SOR) of the Road and Building Department, it said.

Purchase orders of Rs 24.89 crore were given to six parties whose Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) had been cancelled by the state Commercial Tax Department, CAG noted.
The report also pointed out laxity in maintenance of records. No stock register about sand, earth-filling, rubble, boulder, grit kapchi and metal was maintained from June 2012 to January 2013, when orders worth Rs 78.70 crore were placed.
CAG report also frowned upon 258 labour contracts worth Rs
20.34 crore awarded by the company between 2012 and 2013.
"The orders did not mention where the work had to be done,
the nature of work, or how the labour rate was worked out. It was also not clear how the labour contractors were selected," it said.

Financial mismanagement led to "avoidable" loss of about
Rs 13 crore, it said, as the loans received from banks were deposited in fixed deposits with the same banks at an interest rate lower than the interest paid for the loan.